SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

NBC 2021-22

Fall 2021

Mondays
8:00PM The Voice
10:00PM Ordinary Joe (NEW!)

Tuesdays
8:00PM The Voice
9:00PM La Brea (NEW!)
10:00PM New Amsterdam

Wednesdays
8:00PM Chicago Med
9:00PM Chicago Fire
10:00PM Chicago P.D.

Thursdays
8:00PM Law & Order: For the Defense (NEW!)
9:00PM Law & Order: SVU
10:00PM Law & Order: Organized Crime

Fridays
8:00PM The Blacklist
9:00PM Dateline NBC

Saturdays
8:00PM Drama Encores
9:00PM Dateline Weekend Mystery
10:00PM SNL Vintage

Sundays
7:00PM Football Night in America
8:20PM NBC Sunday Night Football

 
Unscheduled Mid-Season/Summer 2022:
New Comedy: American Auto, Grand Crew
New Drama: The Thing About Pam (Limited)
New Reality/Unscripted:: AGT Extreme, American Song Contest, That's My Jam, LA Fire and Rescue, The Wheel, Home Sweet Home
Returning Comedy: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Kenan, Mr. Mayor, Young Rock
Returning Drama: This Is Us, Transplant
Returning Reality/Unscripted: The Wall, Weakest Link, Who Do You Think You Are?

NOTES: Returning shows for the 2021-22 schedule include The Blacklist, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D, Dateline NBC, Kenan, Law & Order: Organized Crime, Law & Order: SVU, Mr. Mayor, NBC Sunday Night Football, New Amsterdam, This Is Us, The Voice, The Wall, Transplant, Weakest Link, Young Rock.

After kicking off with a special post-Olympics send-off for Brooklyn Nine Nine this summer, comedy returns to the schedule in midseason. New series American Auto and Grand Crew will join sophomore successes Kenan, Mr. Mayor and Young Rock for two big nights of funny. Hit comedies Kenan, Mr. Mayor, and Young Rock will also air special holiday episodes.

Decisions are yet to be made on Debris, Ellen's Game of Games, Good Girls, Manifest and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.

As part of NBC’s rolling pilot process this year, the following projects have been picked up to pilot with decisions yet to be made on series greenlights: Dangerous Moms, Getaway, Hungry, Night Court, Someone Out There and the Untitled Nick Wootton/Jake Coburn Project. With the NBC’s 52-week scheduling strategy,these pilots could be possibilities for later in the 2021-22 season or could roll over to the 2022-23 season.

Discuss NBC's 2021-22 lineup and view the full press release.


It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

Well, it's hard to believe, but we are already at the time of year where networks are getting ready to renew and cancel the remaining shows that they still need to make decisions about for the next TV season. Given this season's truncated nature, it feels so early - although "Upfronts" (as they still exist given they are virtual again this year) are actually later this year than usual, and the network TV season is extending into June for many shows given the late start they had. Looking at the sitcom landscape, there are only a handful of sitcoms left on the bubble, with most shows having their fates sealed one way or the other.

The network with the most questions remaining is ABC. Their entire sitcom slate remains technically in limbo, although some shows are likely a lock to return, such as The Goldbergs, The Conners and black-ish. It will be interesting to see if any of those shows have announced final seasons, given the fact that all three saw significant ratings declines this year (in addition to the fact that The Goldbergs and black-ish are pretty old and probably expensive). Less certain for ABC is the next tier of sitcoms. American Housewife, Home Economics, and mixed-ish are all classic bubble shows, with disappointing-to-OK viewership numbers. It seems likely at least one, maybe two, will return, but it's hard to see room being made for all three. American Housewife is the oldest and probably priciest, but its ratings do edge out the remaining two, so it will be interesting to see which direction ABC goes with. Finally, Call Your Mother is a freshman sitcom that had mostly disappointing ratings and little buzz, and I wouldn't expect it to return. Other than ABC, the only sitcoms left on the bubble are B Positive and United States of Al on CBS - two mediocre rated shows that I'd call a true toss up. It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out in the near future.

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

Believe it or not, in just a few short months we will be at the end of the 2020-2021 TV season. It's certainly been a non-traditional season, and while the TV season has long been a window of time that's evaportated someone in the advent of cable and streaming services, it feels even less relevant in the time of COVID, where most shows were delayed and some shows, indeed, still haven't returned. Still, it seems like a good time to evaluate the freshman class of sitcoms. And, frankly, it's a fairly uninspiring class. Some of it could be blamed on COVID causing less pilots to be finished in time to be picked up to series. Still, the new sitcoms on broadcast TV this fall don't inspire a lot of long-term confidence.

The buzziest new shows belong to NBC, as Young Rock and Kenan both come from established names. Unsurprisingly, Young Rock in particular has drummed up the most interest of any new sitcom - and yet still, the show's ratings and buzz have fallen quite a bit from where they premiered several weeks ago. Other freshman series include Call Your Mother on ABC and Call Me Kat on FOX. Call Me Kat attracted some eyeballs early on, but like Young Rock, those ratings have largely faded. And Call Your Mother has not done particularly well, either, and has attracted very little critical acclaim or buzz.

Overall, it's yet another disappointing year for broadcast TV sitcoms. With broadcast television increasingly relying more and more on unscripted hits to weather the tide of falling TV ratings, we are desperately in need for a well-made sitcom to steer the changing tides.

TBS announced that it has cast Damon Wayans Jr. (Happy Endings, Let's Be Cops), Jessy Hodges (Indebted, Barry), Alex Karpovsky (Homecoming, Girls), and Nate Torrence (Hello Ladies, Weird Loners) in its upcoming scripted comedy pilot, Kill the Orange-Faced Bear. The pilot is scheduled to begin shooting in Portland in May. Kill the Orange-Faced Bear is a comedy pilot about one man's epic revenge journey after a bear eats his girlfriend. Damon Wayans Jr. will play Hank, the charming, funny and grieving man who's hell-bent on tracking down the bear who attacked his girlfriend on a camping trip. We'll follow his side of the story as well as the bear's, who is just trying to move on from the incident and navigate the other idiot bears in her life. Jessy Hodges will play Stacy, Hank's late girlfriend, as well Jamie, her twin sister with a confusing secret. Alex Karpovsky is Ronnie, an oddball park ranger who has a score to settle with Hank. Nate Torrance is Murray, Hank's best friend and boyfriend to Jamie, who is just trying to keep everyone together.

ABC announced early 2021 premiere dates for new and returning scripted series, including the debut of the empty-nester multi-camera comedy series Call Your Mother, from creator Kari Lizer (The New Adventures of Old Christine). The new year will kick off with an all-new season of The Rookie on Sunday, Jan 3 at 10pm. The network's Wednesday night comedy block will see the addition of the new series Call Your Mother as black-ish returns to Tuesday nights. Starring Kyra Sedgwick in her multi-camera comedy debut, the series is set to premiere Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 9:30pm, alongside midseason returns of The Goldbergs, American Housewife and fellow multi-camera sitcom The Conners. On Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 9pm, black-ish returns, followed by the sophomore season premiere of mixed-ish and the mid-season continuation of the David E. Kelley drama Big Sky at 10pm. The Good Doctor returns from a holiday break on Monday, Jan. 11 at 10pm, followed by For Life on Wednesday, Jan. 20 10pm, and the continuation of Thursday staples Station 19, Grey's Anatomy and A Million Little Things on Thursday, March 4. Alternative series premiere dates were previously announced. Additional midseason premiere dates will be shared at a later time including new drama Rebel starring Katey Sagal and game show return of $100,000 Pyramid.

NBC is starting the new year on a high note with the launch of the new Robert Carlock and Tina Fey-created and produced comedy Mr. Mayor, the time period premiere of new Canadian medical series Nurses and the season two return of critically acclaimed Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. Starting Jan. 4, Mondays will be a night of fun and games in January and February with the season premieres of hit game shows Ellen's Game of Games (8-10pm) and The Wall at 10pm (moves to 9pm on Jan. 11). A week later on Jan. 11, Weakest Link and host Jane Lynch join the party for its midseason premiere at 10pm. The Voice and Manifest will likely return in March. Tuesdays starting Jan. 5 will mark the celebrated season two return of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist at 8pm for 6 weeks, starring Jane Levy as a whip-smart computer programmer who hears the innermost thoughts of people around her through songs. The series will kick off the night and lead into This Is Us at 9pm. Tuesdays will conclude with Nurses, the network's new Canadian medical drama acquisition will run thru end of February. New Amsterdam is likely returning in early March.

Wednesdays continue with Windy City favorites Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., all season long. Mr. Mayor, starring Ted Danson and Holly Hunter, will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 7 with two episodes at 8 and 8:30 p.m. ET/PT before moving to its regular 8 p.m. timeslot on Jan. 14 with Superstore shifting to 8:30 p.m. From Emmy Award winners Robert Carlock and Tina Fey, Mr. Mayor follows a retired businessman (Danson) who runs for mayor of Los Angeles to prove he's "still got it." Once he wins, he has to figure out what he stands for, gain the respect of his biggest critic (Hunter) and connect with his teenage daughter, all while trying to get anything right for America's second weirdest city. Both comedies are set to run through mid-March, as other comedies March will likely premiere in mid-March (options of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Young Rock and Kenan). At 9pm will be Law & Order: SVU for the rest of the season. Dateline NBC will hold the 10pm slot through mid-March until likely Law & Order: Organized Crime premieres. The eighth season of The Blacklist will resume Jan. 22 at 8pm and run all season long, followed by two-hour Dateline NBC episodes. Saturdays will be encore performances of Ellen's Game of Games, followed by Dateline Saturday Mystery and SNL Vintage. And finally on Sundays after NFL ends, January and February will see repeats (of series such as Weakest Link, The Wall, and SVU) until after the Golden Globes on Feb. 28. Sunday line-up beginning in March will be announced at a later date.

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

Next week is the official launch of HBO Max, the latest in a rapidly increasing streaming service wars that's emerging between the major media companies. HBO Max enters a market already pretty crowded by Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon, along with other recent launches like Apple TV, not to mention HBO's own HBO Go (which isn't going away despite the launch of HBO Max, somewhat confusingly.) But can HBO Max carve out its own niche in an increasingly crowded streaming market? It is debuting with a pretty impressive line-up, with shows with large established fanbases like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Doctor Who, South Park and Rick and Morty soon to call the streamer home, along with upcoming originals such as the third season of Search Party (moving over from TBS following two critically acclaimed seasons), a handful of upcoming DC superhero-based projects (an area Netflix couldn't quite make work with its Marvel agreement ending after just a few years). Still, I have some reservations about HBO Max's success.

HBO Max, in a lot of ways, seems like a direct competitor to Netflix, seeming to aim for their mix of high-brow series with mainstream fare. That's different than something like Disney+, which was purely aimed at families and younger audience and has done a good job cornering that demographic. But there's really nothing separating HBO Max from the already-established trilogy of streamers other than their streaming library. Having Friends especially is an admittedly a big get. There's also not a clear brand for HBO Max, and the marketing has been slightly confusing. A lot of people might simply assume HBO Max is some sort of HBO Go extension, but there's really nothing particularly "HBO" about HBO Max other than the fact that you can get it through an HBO Go subscription. Still, in the increasingly competitive streaming wars, a brand for a service is very important. Netflix's brand has basically become "the streaming service" (it's widely the most used and being on Netflix almost gives way to a popularity boost in and of itself). Disney+ has a very strong brand thanks to its Disney content and its family-friendly approach. Hulu (which is now owned by Disney) is becoming Disney+'s more mature and experimental cousin (sort of what FX is to Fox). Amazon and Apple TV+ don't have great brands either, but they're also owned by billion-dollar conglomerates and are treated more as side projects of those mega corporations. But what is HBO Max? The branding so far seems to be "where you can watch Friends," which honestly might be enough given the popularity of Friends, but I remain skeptical. At the highest price point of any streamer ($14.99 a month following the initial $11.99 early deal puts it slightly above Netflix and ad-free Hulu, and well above Disney+'s $4.99 a month and Hulu Basic's $5.99 a month), it's hard for me to see too many people who aren't giant Friends or Big Bang Theory fans rushing to sign up for a subscription. Still, having two of the biggest sitcoms of the past 30 years on your service could be enough to buy the service time to carve a niche for itself. Whatever happens, these are interesting times for streaming services. With this and the launch of NBCUniversal's Peacock later this year, it'll be very interesting to see whether consumers are okay with throwing more money at an increasingly number of streaming services, or if they're okay sacrificing some of their favorite shows and movies for a smaller streaming bill at the end of the month.

Having just solidified its position as the No. 1 network in entertainment among Adults 18-49 for the first time in four years, ABC is announcing its 2020-2021 programming slate, which includes renewals for 19 series and two straight-to-series orders from its current crop of pilots – David E. Kelley's thriller Big Sky and the multi-camera comedy Call Your Mother (formerly My Village) from Kari Lizer (The New Adventures of Old Christine) – as well as the previously announced alternative series Supermarket Sweep with Leslie Jones. Nineteen series were renewed yesterday: American Housewife, The Bachelor, black-ish, The Conners, Dancing with the Stars, The Goldbergs, A Million Little Things, mixed-ish, The Rookie, Shark Tank, Stumptown, 20/20 and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. They join previously announced renewals of America's Funniest Home Videos, American Idol, The Bachelorette, The Good Doctor, Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19 and the series order of Supermarket Sweep. Schedule to be announced at a later date.

Series that didn't make the cut for 2020-21 were Emergence, Bless This Mess, Single Parents, Schooled and Kids Say The Darndest Things. As for the new series pick-ups (so far): From visionary storyteller David E. Kelley comes Big Sky, a thriller created by Kelley, who will write multiple episodes and serve as showrunner in its premiere season. Private detectives Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and Cody Hoyt (Ryan Phillippe) join forces with his estranged wife and ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) to search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. But when they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before another woman is taken. Natalie Alyn Lind and John Carroll Lynch also star. In the comedy, Call Your Mother from Kari Lizer, this multicamera comedy follows an empty-nester mom who wonders how she ended up alone while her children live their best lives thousands of miles away. She decides her place is with her family and as she reinserts herself into their lives, her kids realize they might actually need her more than they thought. Kyra Sedgwick stars.